Very few studies on urban taxi operation have been conducted. Research on taxi market mainly focuses on the equilibrium of supply and demand. The floating car technology makes it possible to collect real time operating data of taxis, which supports the particular study on urban taxi operation status and can lead to more refined taxi operation management. About 40 million floating car data records from taxis in Shenzhen, China are used as the sample for this research. Taxi service status in several subareas on different dates or during different time is analyzed. The statistics show development trend for taxi trips by subareas, dates and time period during the day as well as significant difference in demand level. Due to the clear functional layout and agglomeration of land use in cities, taxi service status is stable given a relative small subarea and short statistical time interval. Based on the characteristics retrieved from the statistics, an index describing the ease at which taxis can pick up passengers is proposed. This analysis could help taxi companies accommodate the new environment and refine their operation and scheduling management according to the new data.